THE WORD OF GOD

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Jn 1:1

AND THE WORD BECAME FLESH

“The conception and birth of Jesus Christ are in fact the greatest work accomplished by the Holy Spirit in the history of creation and salvation…”
Pope John Paul II, The Holy Spirit in the Life of the Church and the World (#50)

On December 2, the season of Advent begins. I think as Christians we have to begin to think of a way to circumvent the madness of the ‘Christmas season’ and return to the quiet, prayerful and waiting season of Advent.

In the recent issue of First Things Magazine, Joseph Bottoms has an article entitled The End of Advent. It begins:

“Christmas had devoured Advent, gobbled it up with the turkey giblets and the goblets of the season. Every secularized holiday tends to loose the context it had in the liturgical year…Easter has hopped across Lent, Halloween has frightened away All Saints, and New Years has drunk up Epiphany. Still the disappearance of Advent seems seems especially disturbing…”

I think if we are to live Advent well, it requires careful planning. To have a strategy – even now it’s not too late to try and get some of the busy work of Christmas out of the way before Advent begins. As we do this, we can thoughtfully plan to live a prayerful Advent season so that Christmas will be a reliving of the joyful birth of our Savior.

In his blog, Abbey-Roads2, Terry Nelson offers a great suggestion – a novena to the Infant Jesus that he prays each month starting on the 17 and ending on the 25th. He prepares for Christmas all year. WOW!

At ‘UNBORN WORD of the day’, we will be offering prayerful short Advent meditations starting on December 2 till Christmas. Beginning with the waiting of the chosen people for the Messiah, we will then follow the Unborn Christ Child’s time of waiting from conception to birth. This will be our small contribution to help put Advent back in Christmas.